Driver Filion Is Still Very Much Driven

Herve Filion looks at his world through rose-colored glasses.

That is fortunate, considering the view.

“My speciality is to sit behind the behind of a horse,” said Filion, who by the end of 1989 had looked at the blunt ends of harness racehorses for 59,664 miles--that’s how many races he’d driven in.

Of course, an equally familiar sight to many drivers has been the back of Filion’s head.

“Congratulations on your 800 wins,” a caller told Filion on a recent morning.

“Don’t forget the other 14,” Filion said. “Eight hundred are not bad, but the 14 after were good, too.”

Those last 14 triumphs in 1989 enabled Filion to break the career 12,000-victory barrier--12,007 to be exact.

That’s right--12,007 winners. Bill Shoemaker holds the world record of 8,841 wins for jockeys. The 58-year-old Shoemaker will conclude his career Feb. 3 at Santa Anita.

“Yes, but he’s old,” kidded Filion, who will be 50 on Thursday. “I’ll go on until I’m 65. I have nothing better to do. There’s no strain on me. I don’t worry about it. I just go out and do it. I might be going when I’m 75.”

Of course, sitting in sulky behind a horse and sitting on a horse are two different worlds, separated by the size of the humans and the speed of the horses, but “amazing” is the only description of Filion’s success.

Not only does the native of Quebec have more than 5,000 wins more than his closest pursuer, Carmine Abbatiello, but going into this year he also had 9,678 seconds and 8,266 thirds. That means a little better than 50 percent of all the horses he has driven finished at least third.

“I drive horses,” said Filion, who drove his first horse when he was 12 and who won his first race when he was 13. “It’s all I know what to do.”

Filion is not choosy. He has driven some aristocrats such as Grades Singing, Hot Hitter and Nansemond and has won such showcases as the Little Brown Jug and the Cane Pace, but most of his victories have come behind blue-collar horses in routine races that are the foundation of the sport.

Driving. That’s what counts--and winning.

“I’ve got a headache,” he said. “I win a couple of races, and the headache is gone.”

Filion breeds, owns and trains horses, but the vast majority of his drives are for other owners and trainers. It’s called catch driving.

“A trainer puts me on a horse, I drive it,” Filion said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of horse. It doesn’t matter what the size of the track (one-half mile, five-eighths or a mile). That might bother the horse I’m driving, but it doesn’t bother me.”

Driving. It appears never ending. He’ll drive anywhere, but most of his rides are at Freehold in New Jersey and Yonkers in New York, which are open at the same time for 10 months a year. He usually drives five days a week at Freehold in the afternoon and at Yonkers at night.

His routine is to leave home at Old Westbury, N.Y., for the 1 1/2-hour drive to Freehold between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and to return home from Yonkers at about 11:45 p.m.

“The only bad part is the traveling, but somebody drives,” he said. “I can sleep anywhere.” Obviously, not in a sulky. It’s always a challenge out there (in a race),” he said. “It’s not dull.”

Nor is Herve Filion’s life away from the track.

“I’ve got six children at home,” he said. “It’s never lonely at home.”